


Crime Fighting and Feeling Jams

by littlebluesapling, temporalenthusiast



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Non-Graphic Violence, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 16:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/993820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebluesapling/pseuds/littlebluesapling, https://archiveofourown.org/users/temporalenthusiast/pseuds/temporalenthusiast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roxy Lalonde is a young adult living her life like many in the city, working and achieving during the day, partying and socializing during the night. Well, that's if she wasn't too busy fighting crime as a fairly minor superhero, Void. Somehow ending up with Orphaner Dualscar as her nemesis, she continues to fight his poorly thought out and repetitive schemes almost daily before deciding to do something permanent about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Night In the Life of Roxy

"Excuse me, I think you dropped this." Roxy Lalonde half jogged forward around the few on the sidewalk and handed a tall lady dressed in yellow the keys that had previously crashed on the ground.  
"Why thank you miss, it's not smart for me to be dropping my things like that, I'm not exactly from around here you know" She chuckled and Roxy managed a polite smile. "I should be on my way though. I have places to be and humans to meet." The troll bounced off, and waved down a taxi. Although trolls had first moved to earth fifty years ago, some still decided to travel to earth and see the universe. Things were kept separated until ten years ago when there was a rebellion and the trolls began intermingling with the humans. There were still people forcefully against allowing the aliens into their culture, but Roxy didn't see the point, they had the technology to destroy them all, so arguing was pointless and dumb when most of them were fairly civil. However the ones that weren't as humane started to be dealt with about three and a half years ago, when superpowers began appearing in Earth raised trolls and humans. It only happened to a few and some kept their powers secret, while others used theirs for good or evil. Roxy had powers, but right now she was late for her job.

She ran, wrapping her scarf around her neck more tightly due to the chilled late November evening, and navigated the streets to get to her place of work, Derse. Derse was a club that was a twin of sorts to the Prospit bar on the other side of town. Derse had a dark purple color scheme and was more for hosting raves and fancy light shows while Prospit had a gold one and was mostly for casual hanging out in fancy dress and the occasional minor celebrity. Roxy was the bartender and she was behind schedule. While she did not severely need the job, her inheritance was running out and she had already built her reputation as the Dersite bartender who made great drinks and would occasionally drink with you. She had some people she could call friends that would visit and talk with her. She had met a few trolls there, but they seemed to only visit occasionally. After getting behind the bar, pulling on the purple crescent moon shirt, and prepping the area her friend Dirk slid up onto the chair, recognizable by his dumb triangle shades and how they reflected the pulsating lights.

"Hey dork, long time no see. What brings you to Derse the moment I get here?" Roxy began preparing his typical drink, orange soda with a hint of whatever she felt like drinking that night, as he would probably end up leaving it at the bar after talking for a bit.  
"Dualscar's at it again" After she almost dropped the drink, The pink eyed girl chugged it and set the glass down.  
"Third time this week, can't you handle him this time?" Roxy pleaded.  
"He'd fillet me and you know him a lot better than I do. Besides, I'm pretty sure he's trying to get you into one of his quadrants, the "hate but also kinda attracted to" one." Roxy took off her work shirt from over her long sleeved one and tossed it at Dirk who caught it with ease. He stood up and handed a folded piece of paper to her.

"You're taking my shift, I'm sure the host is used to it. If you don't hear from me please try to find my body for a proper burial, next to my cat would be nice. Blah blah blah, you know the sappy "facing my nemesis" speech by now, make sure to water my pumpkins tonight, I've been forgetting."

Roxy ran behind the club and after frightening a rat she changed out of her long sleeved shirt, leggings and skirt into her costume. Her costume was a deep blue hooded short dress, and midnight blue tights and fingerless gloves, not too much of a change from her standard attire, but the mask and the hood made her less recognizable. Leaning up against the wall she checked the paper and there in violet ink was  
"nothing can stop me, and if you're true to your name then you knowv howv to stop me." Underneath in Dirks writing was "This arrived at police headquarters with no address or recipient written on it, however it's just like all the other ones sent to you and he's stopped addressing them directly to you." Roxy sighed and crumpled the paper, putting it in her hidden pocket. The back door of the club opened and a couple walked out, walked closer to Roxy, and kept walking. She was invisible in the shadows, for she was Void.

Roxy was sneaking into an abandoned warehouse at the docks, as Dualscar usually preferred fighting near water to run away faster, when she smelled the ozone smell that came from his famous gun Ahab's Crosshairs Roxy could probably wield a gun better than that guy, but his white missiles were what you had to watch out for. Void climbed up the wall and peered through a window, seeing the obvious net trap at the door, she jumped down and retrieved a crowbar from the side of the building, and scaled the wall again and opened the window. The moment the window gave she dropped down onto the floor and rolled onto her feet. Floodlights turned on and blinded her momentarily, making her lose her invisibility as well as her sight. Hearing the crackle of the Crosshairs Roxy threw a shield out to the source of the noise, the energy was absorbed by the vacuum. Removing her hand from her eyes she surveyed the situation. There was a definite silhouette where the shot was fired from, a cape mimicking the collection drones the trolls used to use to enforce reproduction. The sight would be terrifying for a troll, but it wouldn't strike the same terror in humans.

"Dualscar, I see you've found out how to use lights, congratulations. This is only the tenth time you've used them." Squinting against the lights, Roxy got into a battle stance, careful not to draw attention to the crowbar at her feet.  
"You keep falling for it Void, so which of us is at fault here." A deep voice with a light Alternian accent echoed around the room.  
"Seeing as you continue to be predictable, I'd say the fault is yours." The blue clad hero kicked the crowbar into the air and grabbed it, using it to knock over the closest light toward her target. It landed on top with a dull thud, and laughter rang through the room. The gun skittered across the room to where the violet clad seadweller stood.  
"And I'm the predictable one" He stooped and picked it up. While his head was low, the hero took the chance to take a chance and try and hit him. Dualscar swiftly lifted his rifle to meet her blow. The end of the crowbar hooked around the rifle and was yanked out of Void's hands by Dualscar quickly lifting the rifle above her reach. She took this opportunity to sock her enemy in the face and scamper further away.

"Why you little-" Dualscar murmured, his threatening image now slightly fractured by his sad rubbing of the lavender mark.  
"Seriously though, what's even your plan this time, fight, lose, run away, try again another day? Or more of this "kill humans and landwellers" business, honestly, its kinda pitiful how often that's your plan" Dualscar turned lavender for a different reason then broke out into a forced barracuda smile.  
"Pitiful you say? Well, I had my quadrants set on something more pitch but if you're into that"  
"Sorry, I try not to date creepy genocidal aliens with bad breath. " Roxy shot a shield disk at him, which he blocked with his gun. Shifting the gun to his right side Dualscar held up his hand and a glowing comet was expelled from it, arcing slightly to follow her as she moved. Void made a run for the crowbar past Dualscar, and got her feet kicked out from under her. She rolled to the right to get away from Dualscar and grabbed a broken piece of the fallen light and swung it at the clearly approaching missile. It flew skyward and sizzled when it hit the metal roof.

Sensing Void was getting the upper hand, Dualscar began shooting Ahab's Crosshairs frantically, damaging a lot of the crates that always seem to be in abandoned warehouses. Roxy was skimmed by a shot, leaving a nasty burn that probably wouldn't heal for a couple hours even with her mild healing powers. Constantly shooting shadow-shields she backed Dualscar up to the wall. He promptly used a missile to melt through the thin metal wall. Void perused the villain to the end of the dock, where, as the norm, he slipped into the ocean and got away. Roxy plopped down on the water's edge, careful not to leave her legs hanging off the edge and called Dirk and left a message telling him she was alive and to get the police to her location. She was going to go home, take a nap, and go to sleep, and no paperwork or police were going to stop her.

###### So this is my first fic on here and I'm still getting used to Ao3, so please have a little patience and let me know if I did something wrong! Thank you. I hope to add more to this soon as it is only just starting.


	2. Recovery, Rose, and Realization

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is where the hints of pale romance begin to sprout and we get to see more familiar faces, yay! I'm thinking about the next chapter being from someone else's PoV. Please let me know any mistakes and what you think of it, thank you!

True to her message, the first thing Roxy did when she went home was shower. Her house was a rather large house, much larger than she needed anyways. She had thought about renting out the extra rooms, but the world could be a surprisingly small place and she would probably end up with it full of villains or anti-hero types. Dirk still sent allies and heroes over her way every once in a while. He had connections with a network of heroes, Roxy just acted as hostess to their base sometimes. One way she filled the space was with a rather large collection of games and movies, many of which she had already seen and played more times than she could count. Getting out of the shower she headed to her room that was right next to it, she put on a fluffy pair of pajamas and fell asleep. 

Waking up first thing the hero did was check her phone, just to make sure that the world didn't end in the hours she was sleeping. Dirk had messaged her about having watered her pumpkins and that her boss shouldn't bother her when she came into work next. Moving on to the kitchen, she grabbed a bowl of cereal and finally came to plop onto the pile of beanbags in front of her television. She turned on the news to see what was happening. A green blooded troll with mis-matched horns was finishing up a report before the camera switched over to the attractive anchor Jake English. Roxy knew Jake pretty well, he was also the anchor called on for superhero reports due to his uncanny knowledge of their battles and whereabouts.

_"Last night while most of us were sleeping, popular hero, Goliath Terror, faced the evil that was Harlequin Imp and dashed his nefarious plans to destroy city hall. After Defeating the evildoer with his giant fists of fury, Goliath Terror proceeded to clean up the majority of the debris from his battle and left a note saying "No need for thanks, I finished this battle up lickity-split. It was no trouble at all. ~GT" Harlequin Imp was then put under arrest and will be facing charges shortly. Now to Kandek with the weather."_

She switched off the TV as it flipped over to a blue blood in front of a green screen. Nothing in there about her, not that she was really bothered by it but a little recognition was good. Jake really needed to hide his hero self better though, she was certain the green blood was on to him. She got up and set up her game system and started playing Paper Mario. About ten minutes into the game she got a call.

"Hello? Roxy Lalonde here"  
"Nice fight last night, your shift wasn't that hard either."  
"Hey Dirk, It was easier than most really, he didn't monologue and it was over pretty quick. But you know what they say about monologues,"  
"No, what do they say Roxy?"  
"I dunno, something about monologues being the window to a villain's soul. I still don't know what his motivation is so I'll probably end up fighting him again."  
"What's that noise? Are you playing video games?"  
"Yeah, Paper Mario, what are you doing?"  
"I was about to track down one of the guys from the felt actually, just wanted to check up on you before I did. I've been working on a gun for you,"  
"Really?! That's great! Getting tired of letting Dualscar have all the gun fun."  
"As I was saying, it should be ready by tonight. No bullets though, a laser one so you're on par with him."  
"That's genius, I knew I stuck around you for more than just your pretty face, anyways, ttyl go get that green costumed goon."  
"See ya Lalonde"

She hung up, tossed the phone aside and saved her game. She then got dressed in clothes that were considered acceptable to wear in public, grabbed her bag and headed out to do grocery shopping. After and hour of searching, deciding and paying, Roxy had the food for the week. Still being fairly early in the morning, there weren't too many people out and about, so Roxy was the only one to notice the white beam of light that shot out from the alley. Carefully setting her bags next to the building she ran into the ally way to see a young teenage girl with light blonde hair trying to fight off some muggers.  
"Hey." Roxy's voice boomed through the space, causing all parties to stop and look at her. "If you were smart you'd leave her alone." They stepped away and the girl sat down against the wall, hugging her knees. The three men ran out past Roxy as she walked up to where the girl was sitting and crouched next to her.

"Impressive lightshow" Roxy stated  
"Just go away, I'm sure you have _Normal People Things _you should be doing."__  
"Well, I don't really, just finished up shopping in fact"  
"Then you should get your groceries home before they get stolen."  
"Not till I make sure you're okay, what brings you here"  
"Foster parents kicked me out,"  
"Because of your powers?"  
"And a fair amount of my life choices. But my powers were the main thing, who would like a strange girl with magic light beams of death?"  
"Well, why don't you ask the girl of shadows?"  
"By the way you said that and how you're the only one around, would I be correct in thinking that you are this person of shadows?"  
"My names Roxy, and I can give you a place to stay if you want,"  
"Rose, that would be nice, I'm trying to find my friends. we always talked about going to the city if we needed an escape. We found our powers at the same time, but we've kept them a secret until now."  
"Sounds tough Rose, I've actually had a pretty good life, parents didn't know about my powers, but I think my mom would have been proud, but my dad would've been horrified." Roxy stood up. "Come on, I'll show you my place." They walked out of the ally and Roxy picked up her food thinking: "It has been a good day".

\----------

"Why did I even get out of bed" Roxy groaned loudly, dodging another blast and hid behind some crates in the shadows. She'd managed to persuade Rose against going with her for her near daily fight until she'd mastered her powers. She flipped open her phone and texted Dirk quickly.  
"TG: u bettr get my gun hre rn, d.s. is shotin liek crzy and still not talkin bout his plan" She then rolled out of the way as Dualscar jumped onto the crates and started shooting behind them.  
"Come out, come out, wherever you are. I'm only gonna hurt you" He shot behind another stack of boxes.  
"You still haven't rambled on about yourself, not very true to form" Roxy yelled, poking her head out from behind a box, ducking before the anticipated blast flew at her.  
"Well, I decided to save the monologue routine for after you're captured. That way, it'll be a bit harder to stop me."

He kept jumping on top of different piles, shooting his gun to try and catch her in it's beam or it's light. Roxy rolled out of the way, and crept backwards away from him closer to the entrance. It was the same warehouse, he didn't even bother to clean it up, everything was the same as yesterday except the ribbons of police tape that laid ignored. She started creeping through the net trap, walking carefully as to not trigger it. Her foot stepped into one of the still standing lights and Dualscar zeroed in on her location and let a blast fly. Roxy couldn't dodge without activating the trap so she used both hands to make a shield. The strength of the blast threw her off balance when she was already delicately standing. In order to regain composure and not disturb the trap, she preformed a series of handsprings and cartwheels, eventually righting herself in the middle. Dualscar got down from his perch and smiled largely.  
"Seems you're in the middle of my trap, wouldn't it be a shame if I were to, somehow, activate it?" Roxy froze. Dualscar didn't, he picked up a piece of a box and threw it so it activated the trap and yanked Void into the air.

"Now that you can't stop me, I've decided to tell you my plan, to regain the respect and the fear towards seadwellers that we had in our earlier years on this planet. As the highest on the hemospectrum we have the longest lifespans and the ability to breath under the water." While he was talking, Roxy conjured a sharp shield and began sawing away at the thick worn ropes.  
"How I will obtain this is quite simple. Using you as a bargaining chip, I will fight this city's idolized hero Goliath Terror and best him." Voids phone lit up and she checked it while he started pacing. "TT: I'll be at your location shortly"  
"Once they see their defeated hero, they shall know to fear the seadwellers, if they don't I'll fight more of their heroes, bringing them all down one by one until they have no choice but begin respecting us like the people we are." He stopped and took a breath, realizing how his voice had risen until he was shouting at her. He smoothed back his hair and continued to talk.  
"First I need to properly announce my threat to the world. So if you don't mind, we must be heading to city hall." He headed over to where the rope was tied and began undoing the intricate knot. He began letting the net down when Dirk crashed through the window Roxy had snuck through the last night in his whole sword and cape getup. Dualscar let go of the rope in surprise, causing Roxy to fall the last few feet onto the ground.

Dirk, known as the Prince or the Bottler to his enemies and fans, landed on the ground in front of Dualscar.  
"I hope you haven't been too mean to Void over there, if you were I may have to beat you up a bit more." He drew his sword, always one for dramatics, and when he did his cape moved back enough for Roxy to see a black riffle.  
"See Void, you have all the best friends, I mean, the Bottler, I'm sure he'd fight me if I threatened you." He nonchalantly motioned towards Dirk with his gun, a clear challenge for Dirk to try and fight him. Dirk looked at Roxy who had untangled herself from the net and was back on her own two feet. Roxy shook her head, because if Dirk fought and lost, it would only advance Dualscar's crazy scheme.  
"Sorry, but I have my own villains to worry about, I just came to give a friend a gift." Pulling the gun off his back, he threw it to Roxy then smashed smoke pellets down on the ground.

Void grabbed the gun and aimed for a box right above Dualscar and a red beam shot out of it and left traces of soot on it.  
"At least now we're at a level playing field now. It just wasn't fair when you had a gun and I didn't. Maybe now we can actually finish a fight with a decisive result. " She taunted, using Dirk's exit to keep Dualscar slightly distracted. Dualscar rolled so he had cover, Void did the same. They began shooting at each other from safety, then Roxy took off running, dodging, and occasionally shooting. She then rushed towards her nemesis and after dropping her gun on the ground she began to fight with Dualscar over his gun. Finally getting the upper hand, Roxy managed to put a foot on his chest and rip it out of his grasp, flinging it so it clattered on the floor and the charging power fizzled out. 

The battle then turned into one of fists and powers. Dualscar would charge his punches and kicks with the energy used in his missiles while Void would reinforce hers with her shields, nullifying that energy. While there were many solid hits, neither of them went down. Roxy broke out combat closeness and began climbing boxes to try and get the advantage. She continued exchanging punches as she climbed to the top of the pile she was on. At the top the two danced on and off of the top crate, trying to make the other give in. On one jump on top of the box to try and force her opponent off she jumped on at the same time as him and both of them flailed their arms to regain balance. The box went crashing down from the top and the two landed in a bunch of the debris. Roxy could feel his cold-blooded arm under her head where she laid on the ground and his too long legs on her feet.

"You know," She gasped, limbs aching "it's not smart to try and be respected through fear, not when they have the majority and power. It only makes them ridicule and hate you more."  
"Well," Dualscar groaned "It's worked in the past, and I'm not exactly the Goliath Terror type now am I."  
"An old saying comes to mind right now. "You'll catch more bees with honey than vinegar" It's not too late to switch out the vinegar for honey you know." Roxy pushed herself up off the ground into a sitting position; Dualscar followed.  
"After the things I've done, you don't even know the worst of it."  
"Listen, everyone deserves second chances, and a person with something to prove can make a pretty big imprint on the world. Anyways, I have to go. I left someone I just met at my house and I need to make sure it's still standing." She got up and retrieved her new gun, slinging it over her back.

"Hey, Void?" Roxy turned to look at Dualscar, he blushed slightly "I was wondering if you'd be my- I mean, help me out with trying to get people's respect, because I'm new to the whole thing.  
"Sure thing Dualscar"  
"Please, call me Cronus, I don't think I want to be Dualscar anymore." Roxy smiled slightly.  
"Okay Cronus, I'll meet you at that cafe place by the pier tomorrow, how would noon work for you?"  
"That'd be grand, thank you Void." The superhero jogged off into the shadows, hurrying to her house where Rose waited.


	3. Other Heroes and Helpers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxy goes on her "date" and we're introduced to some of the other trolls and humans living in this world. Also a bit of actual long term plot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Sorry for the wait, this chapter got deleted while I was working on it then life happened. But I'm here!

Dirk ran a hand through his hair, Roxy had texted him the night before that she was okay. He knew that, he had stayed for as long as he could after he dropped off the gun, waiting outside and listening. Once he heard Roxy start to leave he jumped off into the distance to hide before she realised he was babysitting her. He had to approach the subject of the person staying at her house. He didn’t send anyone there and no one he knew, villain or otherwise, was spotted near her. But she would be mad if she knew he was listening, it was mostly to see if the gun worked well, totally not to make sure she had backup if needed. As for her plans with “Cronus”, if that was his name, he’d have his computer, AR, monitor the security cameras near Jane's cafe with a degree higher concern. Now to try and deal with the person in her house.  
TT: Hey, I swung by your house while you were fighting and saw a life signature, is everything alright?  
TG: o yea! shes rose, i picked her up yesterday when i was shoping. shes looking for her friends and needed a place to stay, shes cool.  
TT: Are you sure?  
TG: yes, trust me dork, meybe you could meet her later?  
TT: So this is a long term solution then?  
TG: yup! ;) you jelly?  
TT: You wish. Anyways, I’ve got to go, AR just spotted Doze and I need to catch him.  
In all actuality AR had spotted Doze around the same time Roxy first texted him last night, he’d been able to work out a few minor villains and who their hero counterpart should be, go to the store and pick up spaghetti sauce for dinner, check the list of known villains to see if there’s any major ones he could team Jake up against for some good social points, visit a upcoming hero and add them to his ever growing list, work on The Jane Problem, and work on some of the gifts he was planning on giving the upcoming Christmas.  
It was now almost time and Doze was still being easily tracked. He was in the warehouse Roxy had fought in. The Felt was probably having him clean it up so they can shoot at the Midnight crew from behind the boxes. Either way the Felt were a mob and Dirk had to mop them up one at a time. Itchy was already in custody, and Doze would probably be the easiest. He had AR scanning for the other green mobsters. Most believed they were just wearing green costumes, not out of place in this time, but they were quite clearly aliens. He knew because he'd checked for paint or a mask before taking Itchy into custody. They appeared about three and a half years ago along with the Midnight crew, near the same time the superpowers began appearing. Only now did Dirk have enough power to take care of them and hold them in a special cell he'd been working on. The Felt had only spent their time fighting the Midnight crew and running crime rings, but nothing major enough to warrant an arrest. They were, however, inexplicably tied to the appearance of powers and they seemed to be planning something big. Itchy had mentioned it yesterday when Dirk was fighting, they were becoming more active.   
Finally reaching the warehouse he saw Doze moseying along, taking pictures of all things. This didn't seem good.  
"Excuse me Doze but would you mind telling me why you're taking pictures of this lovely battle scene."Dirk pulled out his sword and got into a battle stance, now he was the Bottler. Doze slowly tuned his head toward Dirk and then sent the pictures from his device before putting it in his pocket.  
"If.......you........want........to.....know......then......let....me....gooo.........then......you'll.......find.......out....later....when....its....too............late."  
"Not a chance" Dirk sheathed the sword and began ripping Doze's consciousness from him. The pink and red lights filled the battle scene as a ghost like form of Doze was balled up in Dirk's hand.  
"Now if you'll hold on a second." He reached for a black bottle on his belt and put the Doze-ball inside it, this was the reason behind his name. Pulling his hood back from his costume he ran his hand through his hair again and hoisted Doze's body over his shoulders and carried him to the closest manhole. Opening it up with one hand he used the other to steady Doze's body. After climbing down he had AR project the map onto his glasses and lead him to his base. It was a basic secret headquarters and had a bunch of computer screens in the main room  
'Still no sign of Roxy at the pier' AR reported to him after he locked Doze up in a time-power-nullification cell and threw the bottle in the room to release Doze's mind in ten minutes time.   
"Turn the priority on Roxy and Jane down a few notches" Dirk grabbed a soda from a mini fridge hidden behind the main computer and desk, popping it open and taking a swig. After a delay AR complied. Dumb robot's almost as protective as him.  
'No felt sightings either, although the Midnight crew has bumped their club security up a few notches.'  
"Noticed last time I was there, too many people standing menacingly, not enough getting drunk off their butts."  
'No further ideas for action against the felt.'  
"We'll have to wait then. I'll have a talk with Doze once he wakes up."  
\--------  
Roxy got home that night and let Dirk know she wasn't dead. She slid the gun under her bed where she could reach it in an emergency. Then quickly showered and got into pajamas, before remembering to check up on Rose. The light haired girl was half asleep on the couch in a pair of pajamas Roxy had lent her, a purple knitted scarf wrapped around her neck.  
"What you still doing up?" Roxy saw that some cooking show was on the tv, although Rose wasn't paying any attention to it.  
"Wanted to make sure you got back" She yawned. Behind Rose's violet eyes was a gleam of curiosity.  
"Want to know about my "arch nemesis?"" a smile broke out on the girl's face making Roxy smile more in turn.  
"Well," she started "First off he didn't do anything personal to me to be my arch nemesis, it was a power match up. My friend Dirk keeps track of good guys and bad guys. Now this guy has two main attacks this old laser gun that shoots blasts of pure energy, and he can make these energy missiles with his hands. Now my sweet powers have to do with shadows and stuff. I can hide all invisible in them and I can make shields that nullify energy. So it's actually a perfect match."  
"Then how do you defeat him? if you're evenly matched how can you win?"  
"We've never actually had a decisive winner, I mostly just foil his plan then we fight until he runs away. Keep in mind a good part of my strategy is run and hide until you can attack. My job is to just neutralize his threat, maybe try and convert him, show him the error of his ways and all." Roxy trailed off, she and Rose sat there watching a troll finish up a cake he was decorating with white pictures of animals from Alternia.  
"Anyways, you need to go to sleep, I'm going to take you to get some clothes tomorrow, then I've got a date with a villain."  
"Can I help fight then?" Rose looked expectant with wide eyes despite the fact she was tired.  
"Nah, this is part of the "show him the error of his ways" thing. We're going to a cafe."  
"Lame"  
The next morning Roxy made breakfast for two, scrambled eggs and toast. Dirk texted her about Rose, but Roxy brushed aside his concerns, she trusted the girl and would help her find her friends. Rose came downstairs at Roxy's call and ate with one hand, the other occupied by a book.  
"Hey, whatcha reading?" Rose looked up.  
"Oh! sorry, I found it last night, Haerea Potter, my foster parents didn't approve of trolls or magic, both things I have a fascination with. So a book with a human/troll magic school was bound to not go over well. Is that okay?"  
"Yeah, you're fine. They made movies you know."  
"Any chance you have them?"  
"All seven books and eight movies, I used to be obsessed with wizards. They're pretty cool. I actually started to write my own wizard book once." Roxy was pretty sure Rose couldn't smile bigger.  
"So we're going to go get some clothes for you, and at noon I'll have to go meet my villain for hot chocolate or something. Then we'll get in touch with Dirk later to try and find your friends, they're probably looking for you. If anyone's heard it'll be him."  
After breakfast they began walking around town and trying out different stores. After their third store Rose suddenly stopped and pulled Roxy in the other direction. Roxy was dragged along across the street until Rose stopped. There where Rose was a tall young blue blooded troll wearing broken sunglasses and missing an arrow shaped horn, stood, looking slightly shocked.  
"Roxy look, this is one of the trolls that assisted me. He let me hide when I was being chased by a gang of anti-hero people. He gave me the scarf, can we pay him back?" Rose looked at her intently and Roxy smiled.  
"Would you like some food? A place to stay?"  
"Um" The troll was sweating lightly "Food would be nice I suppose." Roxy looked around at the restaurants close to them. She spotted a fast food place, the food was good but their troll prices were crazy.  
"You know, I bet you'd like some burgers and fries, on me."Roxy motioned for Rose to wait there while she went inside.  
"Excuse me" He put a strange emphasis on the x. Roxy stopped and turned.  
"Could you please get enough for me and my greenblood friend" Roxy smiled.  
"No problem at all."  
After she got his food she wrote her number down on the bag.  
"Now you have to call me if you ever need a place to stay, I have too many rooms for my own good. If you need help too, just call me if something comes up okay." Roxy was driving clear the point that his presence wouldn't bother her in the slightest.  
"Yes ma'am" he gave a slightly forced, but still grateful, broken toothed smile.  
"Now off you go, have a nice day."  
"Goodbye ma'am" The troll turned and lightly jogged in the other direction.  
"Hey Rose, by any chance did your friend tell you he was The Shadow of the Park?" Roxy quietly said to her friend.  
"It may have slipped my notice, why do you think he is?"  
"I'd know someone with shadow powers anywhere. He kept opting to stand at least halfway in the shadows the entire time in case it was a trap."  
"Well his spot in the park is pretty shady so I didn't notice that. He actually knits pretty well for someone that big." Roxy picked up the shopping bags again.  
"Well, it's almost noon, I'm going to go drop these off. You want to go back or stay out in the town?"  
"I'll go back home, put these away. Just don't let him hurt you or I might have to figure out exactly what my powers can do." Roxy gave her some money for the bus and a little more in case she wanted to get something to eat or the like.  
"Well you're a bit late Void" Duals- Cronus was leaning outside the cafe, he looked like he came right out of a 1950's greaser film with his hair slicked back a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket. to complete the ensemble he had a unlit cigarette in his mouth.  
"Only two minutes, I had to drop off the house guest I mentioned." Roxy headed for the door and Cronus opened it for her.   
"Thanks, you're not allowed to smoke inside though" The seadweller rolled his eyes.  
"Why's everyone think I'm going to light it, that's be a waste of a perfectly good prop. 'Sides the manager already came out and told me, nice looking girl, for a human that is. I don't think her head was on right though, looked at me kinda zoned out." Roxy picked a table for two and took off her coat and sat down.  
"That's Jane, she's one of my friends. Had an accident with a mind-warper a year back. Convinced her we were all just running around in costumes all the time. Keeps her from being racist though. We've almost got the tech for a tiara that would get rid of the fog. The mind-warper's still messing with her mind, if we find a way to block out that signal, she'll be back to normal."  
"What does the mind-warper want with her though?"  
"Not sure, we haven't seen hide nor hair of them since. But they're still in the city at least. We know that much." As she finished a girl in a light blue apron and red glasses came up to her.  
"Hi Roxy, it sure is nice to see you." While there was some animation in her voice, her gaze and motions seemed to move slower than the should and she almost refused to look at Cronus. To the side Cronus raised his eyebrows, his fins flapping once, and filed the name away in the back of his head.  
"Jane, it's been a while hasn't it? How're things going over here?"   
"The shop's been running smoothly really, Jake's been helping me whenever he's not doing sports reports, or whatever it is he does at that station." Jane's expression squished up for a moment while she tried to remember what Jake did news reports on.  
"Anyways Jane," Roxy said to snap Jane out of her trance before she started getting headaches again "I'm here with a new friend of mine. He was waiting outside for me earlier. Cronus, this is Jane." Jane smiled and looked slightly surprised like it was the first time she'd noticed him  
"Nice to meet you Cronus." She held out her hand to shake his.  
"Pleasures all mine, doll" He shook her hand and she gave a small laugh.  
"Oh Roxy you need to stop introducing me to all these nice men, Jake'd have your head if he found out I've run off with one of them. I think he likes me" She said the last part as an aside. "Oh enough of me talking, you're probably here to eat, what would you like?"  
"Whatever's on the menu Jane, anything good?"  
"Well I'm actually almost done a fresh batch of cupcakes, does that and some cocoa sound dandy?"  
"That sounds great!" Jane walked away with a bit of a bounce in her step. If Roxy had turned to look at Cronus she would have seen him looking at her smiling with her friend with a hopeful and longing gaze. She, however, turned to look at him after she finished talking to Jane and caught a few seconds of that look. His cheeks turned a lavender and he looked pointedly out the window at the gray day.   
"So, cupcakes huh." Cronus started "I haven't had too many of them. Is your friend good at cooking then?"  
"Well the cafe's still open isn't it?"  
"Right silly question. So about the more bees with honey thing, you really think I could do it?"  
"Down to business then." Roxy adjusted her self in the chair, leaning forward and putting her hands together on top of the table. "First things first. You'll need to change the costume and lose the name. The costume is specifically designed to terrify trolls, the whole collection drone thing, and the name makes you stand out as evil because of the crimes committed under "Dualscar". With me so far?" Cronus bit his lip then sighed.  
"Fine, they were my ancestor's anyways. He came here with the first wave, he was a commander of the fleet that found this place. I'd figured if I had to chose a name, It'd be him, a feared hero of the Alternian Empire. But I can't exactly just waltz around as "whats-his-face" now can I?"  
"Hey, I'm not one to come up with names Cro, but we'll figure something out. As well as a costume, unless you want to fight crime all greaser like and stuff."  
"Pardon me, sorry to interrupt Roxy but I brought your cupcakes and hot chocolate!" Jane came in with a plate of four chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and two steaming mugs.  
"Thanks Jane, You're a lifesaver" Roxy's own smile faltered for a second at her own choice of words. Jane used to have some fantastic healing powers heaped up on her other ones.  
"No problem, your friend's hands are like ice though, make sure he drinks all of the scrumptious warm drink before he goes and freezes himself out there." Roxy gave Jane some money for the food, Jane never let her pay full price, and Jane retreated to the kitchen to continue baking for the other few customers in the shop. The mismatched pair finished their drink and ate their cupcakes, Cronus almost just shoved them in his mouth after trying a small bite. Roxy laughed at his antics, a little scared by the sharp shark-like teeth, but enjoying the overall relaxed vibe both of them had. She knew he was trying to change, she caught his sincerity when he mentioned just wanting respect. This allowed her to feel at ease with him, despite their past quarrels. That and if he began fighting or trying anything, Jane's powers would have kicked in and fought back, a purposeful backup the mind-warper left in. It's presence both confounded and comforted the other three team mates, but still added up to the fact that the mind-warper wasn't done with her yet.  
"Want to meet up tomorrow then?" Roxy offered.  
"That would be wonderful, why don't we try this little restaurant near my place then doll?" Roxy hesitated but ended up agreeing. She left the cafe and parted ways with Cronus, catching yet another glimpse of a hopeful smile.  
\--------  
“So, Purrtador, what are you going to do now? I have you trapped!” Huntress was on Matador, Tavros’ back, having just tackle hugged him, playfully yelling. He had just come back to the alley, where they had set up camp while tracking down the infamous villain Capricious, after going to the store  
“Hey, at least let me put the food down” Huntress slid off Matador’s back, it had been hard to convince the people at the store he was indeed a hero and not just a weirdo in a costume with a red cape. He had to make the pigeons outside make his hero symbol, the Taurus. He sat down on the ground, folding his robo-legs, and grabbing a can of ravioli from the bag. They only knew each other's hero names, as it would be risky to know their real ones in case they let it slip during combat.  
“I don’t know why you don’t just let me catch some food instead!” Huntress sat down next to him and popped open the can with her glove claws. “It’d be a lot easier! We’d have meat roasting over a fire and-”  
“We’d be tracked down by Capricious or the police. I’m pretty sure we’re breaking some kind of law at least”  
“Are you kidding, they love heroes in this town! what with that Goliath Terfur everyone loves, we’d be-”  
“Exposed as heroes and have to be on the run from villains at every turn, we kinda are easier to identify than humans, what with the horns and blood, Capricious would track us down in no time and you know what he does-”  
“Yes!” Huntress yelled cutting Tavros off, the words dying in his throat. “I know what he does remember” Matador looked down at his feet, the metal shining back at him.  
“Archer was a good guy, I met him once” If Huntress had turned her head any faster she probably would have hurt herself.  
“You did? Why didn’t you ever say so!”  
“It was a while ago, before the superpowers and all that, I wasn’t sure it was him. He had both his horns back then, and you never really like talking about him. I’d gotten hurt by a friend of his and my spine had broke, he found me there, just a brownblood and he took me to his apartment and gave me these legs.” Huntress quietly spoke after a while a silence.  
“I thought I recognised the handiwork, he didn’t really make a habit of giving out help like that, always afraid to break something worse.”  
“I couldn’t really get much worse than I was at that point.” They sat in amicable quiet until Huntress spoke up.  
“He knits you know, or used to anyways” Her voice was wavering “He made my hat. He used to build robots or punch things when he got nervous, neither of those ended well, so I got him a knitting book as a joke. He took to it quite well and he made me my hat” Tavros knew the hat, she kept it hidden deep in her bag but would occasionally wear it on scouting missions. She looked close to tears so he leaned over and hugged her until she was better composed.  
They finished their meal and began to prepare for sleep by packing up the food. Huntress breathed out calmly and pulled a sleeping bag out of her backpack and spread it out, inviting Matador to share the warmth. Before drifting off to sleep Huntress whispered  
“We’re the worst Hissmesises efur” and they were.  
\---------  
Kanaya was walking around the high end grocery store in her nicest half-sleeved red dress, two prices lay next to each other on every item. This was a rather racist store too, troll prices stood out in red, higher than the human prices. She enjoyed visiting this store, she grabbed an apple from the stand, inspected it and put it down.  
At least thats what it looked like to others, she had actually tucked it away in a pocket dimension of sorts and could feel it resting inside her own section of space-time. Heading to the dairy section she managed to get a whole gallon without anyone noticing it’s sudden disappearance. She swung by the already cooked chickens, but there were too many people as usual, they always had someone near the meat incase the trolls tried anything. People were staring to give her odd looks so she grabbed a small bottle of soda, not Faygo at her companion’s request, and paid for it with the little money she had. She gave a teeth baring smile at the cashier who was giving her a distasteful look. Taking out a dark green scarf from her near empty bag, she wrapped it around her neck and put on her black gloves.   
She walked quickly to a nearby park and carefully picked her way through a particular set of bushes. Her friend was sitting in one of the trees, his attention devoted to the scarf in his hands, it was a warmer green than the one he made for Kanaya and he only worked on it when she was away or he was stressed. He looked up to see Kanaya and a quick broken toothed smile filled his face.   
“Hello, Equius. I did some, well, shopping I suppose. Today’s probably the last day we can go there, I think they’re catching on.” The blueblood finished the row he was working on and carefully put the scarf in his bag.   
“Then we should show them one more lesson about their bigotry” Equius spoke softly climbing down from the tree.   
“So we’ll do that tonight then?” she’d started to unpack the food stored and count her bounty  
“After we eat dinner of course, no use breaking in on an empty stomach.” Kanaya’s face fell,  
“Well I’d planned on getting some nice hot food but there were too many people around.”  
“I’d suspected as much, which is why I have a treat.” He pulled from a bag a smaller paper bag with a tantalizing scent and grease splatters on the outside.  
“Oh my goodness Eq, how’d you manage this?” The majority of fast food chains did not take too kindly to trolls and their special prices were through the roof.  
“I’d met with a young lady earlier this week who stumbled in here while searching for shelter. I allowed this young human to stay as she didn’t mean any harm and was, unique, like ourselves. I gave her one of my purple scarves as she took a liking to it. I saw her with an older female when I was about today and she offered to buy me some warm food for me and you, she also gave us the older female’s number in case we need a home.”  
“But what if she wasn’t friendly. What if she was in league with one of the villains, they’re abundant in this part.” Kanaya’s voice did not raise with concern as much as questioning. She trusted Equius’ judgement but wanted to know why he judged her as a friendly.   
“I didn’t trust her at first, but then I saw some of the filth that persecute both specials and trolls run past after she hid. Also she reminded me of you a bit.” He shifted side to side, a clear sign he was hiding something. He never absently shifted side to side like that, out of fear that he would hurt someone somehow.  
“And what else did she tell you? Don’t try to hide it.”  
“That she and her group of friends ran into Capricious and were separated.” He immediately began avoiding her gaze. She knew about the encounter that had cost him his moirail, she was the one who had found him at the site and helped him put his pieces back together. It had been a while since then and they had put looking for Capricious on the back burner after they began to just stop the petty thefts and wrongdoings in the large park area. The park was back to being safe for people at night and at one point someone had started a fund to give to the mysterious heroes who kept the park “clean of filth” as Equius, or The Shadow as he was known now, would say. Kanaya gave a small sympathetic smile.  
“We’ll take care of him soon enough, trust me. Now that young lady’s gift is going to get cold if we keep talking all night.” Kanaya could see him start to say something, probably about the “we” but he stopped himself and took out the burgers and fries inside the bag. They both knew he would protest her coming along and she would insist. They’d had conversations like that before, but now they ate the burgers, the unspoken conversation lingering in the air.  
\---------


	4. More Heroes and a Bit of Backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet two groups of heroes as they meet each other. Also Roxy and Cronus' second pale-date doesn't go as well as they think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there! I've made a blog for this if anyone cares: crimefightingandfeelingjams.tumblr.com  
> I'm expecting to put out chapters about once a week or two, but life might sneak up on me.

“KK, have you got a track on the robots yet?” A hero clad in a gold hoodie, black pants and a black mask lept onto an adjacent rooftop, red and blue sparks packed in his feet. He readjusted the earpiece to catch the last few words of the response  
“-still not sure why you didn’t stay here instead you computer-loving f-”  
“Because a wriggler could beat you up Red” A bright red and teal character interrupted the curse using a cane to propel herself across to where her friend stood. She liked to be known as Redglare and, despite being blind, she could see there wasn’t any time to waste. The people controlling the robot swarm would catch on if they followed too close, but would get lost in the city if they were too far.  
“So Sol, they’ll notice if we just keep following like this forever. While I do enjoy a good fight, we’ll also lose our chance to find the culprits.”  
“Well if Karkat would hurry up and get track them before I keel over, we won’t have that problem.” Sollux, or Psiionic as he insisted was cooler, argued.  
“Hey! No names over the com bulgemunch, what if someone’s listening?”  
“Then they’ll also know you’re too lame to even properly encode the channel and you’re no threat.”  
“Well how’d you like it if I just kept saying your name over the com, huh?”  
“You’re both pretty, now hurry up or there’ll be no chance to track them, with tech or on foot.” Terezi could smell the line of opportunity, they had three minutes to either catch up to the robots or get a track on them. If it took longer the controller would notice and then a fight would break out, but if they stayed far away enough for long enough they’d be led right to the base.  
She grabbed Sollux’s arm and pulled him in the right direction, using his telekinesis to give her a boost across.  
“Fine, but I’m not done with you yet mustardbulge”  
“At least I don’t have a sex symbol on my shirt”  
“Oh come on, it’s Cancer, like the crab, you do that every time, you could at least be a bit more imaginative.”  
“No need to be all worked up about it. You just seem a little..”  
“Don’t you even da-”  
“Crabby”  
“Are you kidding me, are you fu-”  
Redglare put up her hand to show Sollux to stop.  
“Radio silence” she whispered, Karakat stopped blabbing and all you could hear was the very faint clicking of keys on the keyboard over the mic if you were listening for it.  
They maintained distance enough for Terezi to smell the new opportunity line that showed the base, after memorising the address of the abandoned apartment she smiled widely.  
“Gotcha” There were more opportunity lines now, she decided the best result would be to sneak up on the apartment and confront them directly, but the other would be to attack the robots to show they meant business and that had a higher chance of catching more than one of the group by force. The furthest she could see down the lines was that they were human, two males, one female.  
“So I have the address, we ignore the robots and confront them, we might find out a bit of their plan, they might even act friendly for a bit, but we’d have to be careful with our words, theres too many branches up there. We could attack the robots then attack them, we’d catch more of them by force if we took that path. Shall we vote? KK, you first.”  
The line was quiet for a bit while Karkat pondered which would be a better option, Sollux rolled his eyes, or would’ve had they not been completely red and blue due to being powered up, making it impossible to see them rolling around. He then let out a dramatic sigh.  
“Well, whatever scrawny says, I say we go for the attack approach. I’m terrible with people-”  
“You don’t say?” Terezi cut in  
“Hey, screw you. And as I was saying, sending creepy robots out at this time of night they’re probably not friendly either. Besides, I bet I could mop the respiteblock with em, one psionic behind my back.”  
“Oh, what so your powers now have numerical value” Karkat finally spoke up.  
“Yes,”  
“Well I think that’s the dumbest idea since you put me on tech. I say open approach, they could be useful allies if we want them to be.”  
“But the safer option would be to shoot first, ask questions later” Psiioniic lisped out.  
Something shifted in the lines and Terezi felt her organs plummet.  
“KK, how secure is this line?”  
“Well, I’m not the best with this tech”  
“Just on a scale on one to ten”  
“Five”  
“Well, we have to go attack them now if we’re going to do anything, we underestimated them.”  
“How badly” Sol asked. A sour taste filled her mouth as she saw how badly they had, the lines were smeared over into one another. She could see them clearer the better she knew the persons involved, she obviously didn’t know the other group at all.  
“On a scale of one to ten we get a nine. You might want to untie that other psionic now”  
They began leaping over the rooftops with greater speed and urgency. Redglare could feel the lines fading as she lost confidence in her ability.  
“We’re flying blind, joke intended. Radio silence.” When they got to the place, a neighborhood slowly being rebuilt to try and improve the part of town, Terezi just pointed at the place and jumped down an old fire escape to go into the right room through a window.  
In the room was a young human girl with long black hair, her eyes stained with tears, hands tied together with rope.  
“Please help me, I don’t know what’s going on, and, and” She began hyperventilating and started crying some more. Terezi felt herself soften to the girl, she just looked so pitiful and couldn’t be much older than any of them.  
“TZ, Don’t it might be a trap. We’ll lose the element of surprise if we stay here any longer, we have to get to the other room and knock some heads together.”  
“Y-you’re going to hurt them?” Something felt, off about this, one girl and two boys, that’s what she’d seen.  
“Well, duh, despite your act we know they’re dangerous, and you’ve conveniently gotten rid of yourself from the equation. If it turns out you’re innocent we’ll free you after we beat them up.”  
“You can’t just leave me here!” Terezi opened her mouth to speak but Sollux shut it with psionics.  
“We’ll be back eventually. Just sit tight for now.” He then slammed open the next door and he saw two boys, one with shades, the other with regular glasses and an overbite. Before either had the chance to get up from the computers they sat at, Sollux trapped them with psionics.  
“Well that was eas-” before he could finish his cursed statement he was blown back by a gust of wind and the guy with shades punched him in the face. Terezi grabbed her cane and wrapped one of the collapsible parts around the shades kid’s neck.  
“Don’t do that windy thing beaver boy or-” She then looked to where the boy with shades had been and saw he was still there and trapped in her cane-noose.  
“Ooh” She cackled “Hey Psi, the boy’s a doubler, sounds like a good match for you, you like things in twos right?” Sollux was busy trying to staunch a nosebleed and just grumbled incoherently, still keeping the other two aloft with his one red and blue sparked hand.  
“So this is your one warning, make a wrong move and you’ll find yourself at the wrong end of this beautiful pointed stick I have wrapped around the pretty double’s neck, got it?”  
The original Shades spoke up  
“My name is Dave, if you’d care to use it. Beaver boy is John. I suggest you wrap this up before the robot’s return sequence kicks in or my pizza gets here, cuz I’m not sharing my pad or my food with you guys.” Terezi felt around the timelines and saw they did have a return sequence, but not if it was activated. She needed a better way to see the lines, a physical touch always helped a bit, if she could see, looking closely at the character in question would help.  
“Excuse me doubled Dave, do you mind if I take a quick look at your timelines to tell if other you if telling the truth?” When a response began forming in the other dave’s throat she tightened the trap to show it was rhetorical but he still squeaked out a “Sure let me go get them”  
“Thank you dear” She then licked the side of his face, laughing at the high-pitched squeal he made. As both of the Daves were shouting about how gross that was and John was laughing, Terezi reviewed the timelines she saw, the robots were indeed heading towards them and that she and Sollux couldn’t fight them all and keep their prisoners. She sighed. The three humans were still talking.  
“Oh man Dave did you just squeal like a guinea pig?”  
“She just licked my face, I didn’t think she’d do that.” The Dave copy protested.  
“Dude. I almost don’t want to merge with you, just so I don’t have to experience that too.” The alpha Dave said lightly.  
“Psi” The yellowblood tightened his psionic grip a bit and the two became silent.  
“They’re not lying about the robots, and we can’t fight them with these guys not in custody. Get a good grip on them and we’ll take them to base.” She shifted the other part of the cane to one hand and put the other on the com piece, assuring it’s spot in her ear.  
“KK, do you read” Nothing.  
\--------  
Karkat had been watching the whole exchange from the small camera in Terezi’s red glasses until he felt a gun pressed up to his back, then he froze.  
“Put your hands in the air and put the mic on mute” a calm female voice whispered in his ear. He complied and turned his head slightly to see who was behind him, it was the girl he’d seen tied up and crying.  
“Name’s Jade, nice to meet you Karkat.” she smiled largely with a bit of venom behind it, daring him to try to escape.  
“But,” he began to croak out, and seeing he wasn’t stopped, he continued “How do you know my name?”  
“You really do stink at tech work, it was cake to hack in, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take you somewhere real quick, please don’t struggle or who knows where you’ll end up!” a bright green flashing light engulfed them and Karkat found himself in another apartment room, looking out the window he saw the one his friends were in across the street.  
“Sorry for the misunderstanding by the way, it’s too bad. You seemed nice enough. I hope I’ll see you again under better circumstances” Jade walked in front of him and he saw her hands were still tied together, but holding the gun with ease.  
“Few more things, now that I’ve gotten a good look at you, I can teleport to you with a mere thought, gun in hand, tell that to your violent yellow friend for me. And if you see a girl called Rose, tell her Jade says hi and send up a flare.”  
“Why can’t you just teleport to her?” Karkat spoke up quickly  
Jade sighed at this. “She has light bending powers, I can’t find her because when I try and see her I just get this big black spot. We were trying to fix that when we got separated.” Jade was quiet for a while and looked at the apartment.  
“Anyways I have to go now, they’ve probably noticed you’re missing by now,” Jade started to spark green again.  
“Wait!” Jade stopped and looked at him and cocked her head.  
“I, uh, hope you find your friend alright” Jade smiled  
“Thanks Karkat” Then she vanished.  
\--------  
“Psi, KK’s not answering.” The yellowblood looked up quickly at Terezi and then looked at the computers the two boys were at earlier, there was a picture of Karkat and a set of coordinates in one screen and a recording of their conversation on the rooftops. Sollux turned violently on the two in his grasp  
“What did you do to him?” His eyes sparked dangerously.  
“Hey man, it wasn’t us, there’s only two of me right now and only one of John” Sollux cursed, the crying girl. Terezi came to the same conclusion.  
“That poor girl? You tricked us?”  
“No, she was there to see if you were going to be angry, then get insurance if you were. It was Jade’s idea” The coms crackled on and the girl’s voice spoke  
“Hello there, please release my friends, I don’t want to have to hurt you, Karkat’s okay. We don’t want to hurt anyone, we’re just looking for our friend or the man that took her. Sorry to deceive you too, we’ve been tricked and trapped before and it’s never fun. Please let the Daves and John go if you will and we’ll be on our way.”  
“Not until you give back KK” Sollux yelled and he pinned Jade’s friends against the wall as a warning.  
They heard her sigh.  
“I’ll show you where he is, hold on” The com went silent and they saw a bright green light fill the room. Sollux lost his grip on the two and turned to the source of the light to see the young girl standing there, about a head shorter than him and then he saw her fist heading at him with the green light showing flashing images of locations. After being swallowed by the light he looked to his left and saw Karkat sitting next to him, leaning against the wall.  
“Hey, Sol.”  
\--------  
Terezi was about to be angry until she saw the red and blue sparks from a nearby apartment, showing Sollux’s, and Karkat’s, position. Jade smiled, visibly relaxed.  
“Sorry about the trouble, I really am, we’re just looking for our friend I promise, now can you release the Dave?” Terezi let her grip loosen and she unwrapped it from the Dave’s neck.  
“You might not want to keep sending out those robots you know, you’ll attract all sorts of trouble, and they might not be as nice as me” the troll warned with a small smile.  
“But, I think you could deal with it, we’re actually starting contact with the guy who runs the underground hero network, he’s gonna hook us up with a permanent living situation, not just that van you saw, and a villain. He might’ve seen your friend around,” Redglare pulled out a business card with orange contact information and an image of a bottle on it.  
“Thank you so much, I’ll contact you if we find them, I feel we could be great friends!”  
“Yeah, best friends with yellow” Dave grumbled behind Jade, “at least you weren’t licked” other Dave grumbled before merging with alpha Dave who pulled a disgusted face once he was merged.  
“Oh my god” He began scrubbing at his face with his sleeve.  
“Ha!” John laughed once, leaning, no, floating against the wall. “Honestly, your face was priceless.” Terezi smiled and walked determinedly towards John and pulled him down by the front of his shirt and gave him a big lick upside his face  
“So you don’t feel left out” she chuckled on her way out the door, waving a last goodbye to Jade, leaving to go get her boys down the street. Looking back at the possible timelines collected from John and Dave, she decided she liked this one best.  
\--------  
Roxy woke up about an hour before she was supposed to meet Cronus at the cafe they went to yesterday. She rushed through breakfast, Rose already being up had made some for her, put on her makeup, said goodbye to Rose, grabbed her purse and ran out the door. She made it to the cafe minutes before Cronus showed up, dressed nearly identically to the last day, with only a violet shirt being different. He offered his arm to Roxy and she cautiously took it. They walked along to where there were construction sites, building new apartment buildings in place of the old ones. As they passed into “the bad side of town” Cronus began walking a little further from people they walked past, switching Roxy to his other side away from them. Roxy noticed this and let him do this. She also noticed the troll population go up, with more seadwellers showing up the further in they got. He then lead her to a small seafood joint on the corner of the street. Cronus sat in a booth seat near the kitchen exit mentioned for Roxy to sit on the other side then he smiled widely and ran off to order food. Roxy sat and looked around the place, it looked like an old fashioned diner with a greater mix of seadwellers than humans and land trolls. It was interesting how the trolls’ social forms turned almost upside down here,  
“Ya do know your quadrentmate’s a Super right?” A female seadweller in a fuschia apron interrupted her musings, leaning against the table.  
“Yeah, that’s actually how we met, and he’s not my boyfriend, I’m just helping him out with some stuff.”  
“Pft, yeah, so you’re saying you took pity on ‘im?”  
“I guess so-”  
“Meeeeeeeenah” Roxy turned to see a blueblood girl calling from the kitchens and the cook, Meenah, grumbled and headed over to the door. Cronus appeared seconds later with a tray of fish and fries.  
“Was that Meenah?” he asked looking around quickly to make sure he didn’t see anyone else taunting them.  
“Think so, do you know her?”  
“Well I guess you could say we’re friends, we’ve, worked together in the past but she found a matesprit and followed her dreams so whatever we were dissolved.” He didn’t elaborate which lead Roxy to believe they were either together romantically or worked together as villains.  
“This place is nice,”  
“It’s not as good as some of the fast food chains round here, but it’s cheaper and unbiased.” Roxy looked around once more taking in the overall vibe of the place.  
“I like it” she decided aloud.  
Meenah made a return by sliding past their booth and pretending to ask their order.  
“Would the pale pair like a strawberry smoothie to commemorate how sickeningly sweet they are?” Meenah’s blue friend then ushered her away and the fuchsiablood sped off cackling back into the kitchen.  
“Sorry, I’m Arenea, nice to see you round again Cro” With a quick wave she ran off, probably to berate Meenah some more. Through the whole ordeal Cronus had his head in his hands and was blushed up to his fins. Roxy’s troll romance wasn’t the best due to her father enrolling her into a racist high school that just skimmed over it, but she was pretty sure pale was the calming one. She could do calming, right? That was kind of what she was going for anyways.  
“You okay Cro?” Roxy tried to peer comically between his fingers and caught a glimpse of his violet eyes peering at her before he adjusted his hands to try and hide again.  
“If you don’t stop that I’ll.... eat all your fries!” she grabbed his plate in mock-threat.  
“No way, those are mine” he smiled and scooped up a large handful of them. They continued to talk and banter back and forth until the food ran out, at which point Cronus offered to show Roxy around. He kept up a running commentary, noticeably happier now that Roxy hadn’t acted ashamed of her helping him and hadn’t thrown down the idea of being his moirail. Roxy shivered at the cold partway through Cronus’ explanation of Lusii, it had gotten colder sooner than she thought it would. Cronus noticed and draped his coat over her shoulders, insisting his cold blood made him not mind the chill. They continued for about an hour until a young purpleblood in facepaint ran past Roxy, knocking her down and taking her bag.  
“Hey!” Cronus immediately broke out into a run after the thief. Roxy followed him down an alley where she saw Cronus holding the young man up by his shirt and yelling at him for stealing Roxy’s bag that was now sitting against a wall.  
“And you know that thieves aren’t taken to kindly around here. If I-”  
“Cronus you put that young man down right now!” Roxy pulled herself to her full height, still about a foot and a half shorter than Cronus. Said seadweller turned his head to look at Roxy and gave a confused look.  
“But he stole-”  
“My bag which I have back now, you’ve scared the kid enough.” Before Cronus could comply or argue the kid whipped out a knife and stabbed his captor’s arm. The purpleblood ran out from Cronus’ reach and said to Roxy who was standing in shock.  
“Thanks miss, the mirthful messiahs will remember your help” then he chuckled and ran off, Roxy staring after him.  
“That little punk stabbed me!” This high-pitched cry brought Roxy back to the present.  
“Well you did pick him up and yell at him,”  
“Yes and now there’s just one juggalo out there just a bit less scared of seadwellers and humans now, that’s great! Makes me almost forget he pulled a knife on me.” Roxy rummaged through her bag and pulled out tissues which she used to stop the slow leak of blood from his upper arm. Cronus sat down so Roxy could examine the wound easier. It wasn’t fatal, but should be cleaned out and bandaged up quickly. She quietly appologised for the trouble she’d caused.  
“Nah, if you didn’t give him the opening the business end of the knife would’ve found it’s way somewhere vital. Still wasn’t expecting it though, clowns don’t use knives that much.”  
“How fast do you heal?” Roxy’s healing factor would heal it up in about thirty minutes.  
“Faster than a normal human, slower than you probably. Super-quick healing wasn’t one of the things that came with the package, this one seems a bit too deep to heal up all on it’s own. I have some disinfectant and such back at my place.” Roxy offed him a hand up, but he waved it away nicely and stood up on his own. Roxy offered him his coat back but he refused that too. They began to walk with a purpose towards where Cronus’ house must’ve been. Something kept poking at Roxy’s mind, so she asked,  
“So all those battles? Don’t you bruise or something?”  
“Not as easily as you peaches, but I just covered the big noticable ones with makeup and slapped some bandages on the cuts.”  
“Had I known I might’ve felt bad about kicking your butt!”  
“Well had I known you were that strong, I might’ve asked for a hero change first day!” They continued on, stopping at a crosswalk while cars drove past.  
“Could you do that?”  
“Hm?” Cronus looked down at her.  
“Ask for a new hero.”  
“Well for villains you’re pretty much stuck with them until they either get the new model of hero just for you, or you make a deal with someone else to trade. Problem is, we’re- they’re not as well organised as hero-types. You’d be having quite the problem if they decided to start their own hero dating service, they’d wouldn’t be as fair in the pairing.” They had reached an apartment building, Cronus pulled out a ring of keys and unlocked the main door. Roxy looked around the stairwell as he lead her up the stairs and unlocked the door to his apartment. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, a lot smaller than Roxy’s giant home for one, but overall it seemed to be in pretty good condition.  
“Bandages are in there” The violetblood nodded towards a first-aid kit on the wall as he took the tissues off his arm. Roxy opened it up and pulled out a roll of bandages and disinfectant spray. Leading Cronus to a couch she began unwrapping the bandages.  
“Okay, sit down, I’ve got this.” the tall seadweller complied and the hero bandaged his arm up surprisingly well.  
“Well,” Cronus aid as he got up the moment Roxy had finished putting on the bandages, “This is it, home sweet home. Thanks Void.” He gave her a big sincere smile. Roxy smiled at him  
“No problem, what’s the gameplan?”  
“Well now I’m patched up, would you like something to drink and we can discuss the whole hero business again?”  
“Sure thing!”  
The two began talking about possible villains he could be paired against and possible hero names as well as just talking about whatever. Hours after Roxy first got there she felt the hairs on her body stand up slightly, something that would have gone unnoticed if she’d never had to rely on that feeling to dodge what came after. Before she could throw a shield around herself she was found wrapped up in Cronus’ arms on the floor, he’d put his body between her and the direction the feeling was coming from. A second before a white laser beam broke through the window Roxy conjured a shield around the both of them. She didn’t waste time after this attack, her battle reflexes kicking in, Void ran to the window and she saw a retreating figure with the sunset behind him on the roof across the street. A crash made her turn, still pumped with adrenaline. It was Cronus throwing stuff around to reveal an empty hiding spot about the size of Ahab’s Croshairs.  
“Pack a bag, grab some clothes, grab whatever. You’re not staying here tonight.” Roxy wasn’t going to wait for the shooter to come back.  
“Void-”  
“I’ll pack the troll medicine, I’m almost certain the human type won’t help you”  
“Void-”  
“Don’t you dare argue, you’ve had two chances to die already and someone might get lucky it’s saf-”  
“Roxy!” the pink-eyed girl stopped talking at the sound of her real name and looked at the upset seadweller.  
“Roxy, are you okay? He didn’t hit me, but I want to make sure.” Roxy sighed, she began just feeling tired.  
“I’m fine, but you’re not staying here tonight,” Cronus opened his mouth to say something but Roxy cut him off  
“I don’t care why you think you should stay, I’m calling D- Bottler and he’ll help work this out, but you can’t stay here.”  
“Where will I stay then, it’s not like I’d be much safer just sleeping in some alley somewhere-”  
“You’ll be staying at my place, I have enough rooms and if Bottler has a problem with it then he can try being shot at.” Cronus was quiet for a long time before quietly thanking her.  
“C’mon, just pack a small bag for now, we’ll get a taxi to my place, it’s a bit too dark to walk back and we’re a lot further than when we started.” While Cronus packed Roxy texted Dirk then found a piece of cardboard to tape over the broken window. They worked in relative quiet until Cronus finished, slinging a backpack over his shoulder.  
“Ready?” Roxy put one more strip of tape over the cardboard before responding.  
“Yup, lets go get a ride!” She had begun to get the skip back in her step, now looking at how well things should go.  
\--------  
Cronus was excited to be hanging out with Roxy, he still hadn’t found a time to double check her response to troll romance though. He helped Void hail a taxi and climbed in the back. Roxy gave the man the address and looked out the window. He pitied her so much it hurt. After making sure she hadn’t seen him looking at her with all that emotion he turned to look out his own window and at the buildings going by.  
“You saved me.” Roxy’s voice was a soft and he almost missed it. He felt the cold spread on his face where he knew he was blushing.  
“You made the shield not me.” Cronus refused to make eye contact and instead looked at his worn hands and twiddling his thumbs.  
“No, you did, if I didn’t put that shield up in time, you would’ve taken the blast for me.” His traitorous eyes moved to look at Void’s pink ones. Dumb humans were too fragile, even she did have healing powers, he knew she wouldn’t recover anytime soon from a shot full power if she had survived at all.  
“I figured I’d have a better chance of being able to shrug it off, the energy signature’s close to my missiles.” He lied, he hadn’t had anything going through his mind at that time beside protecting Roxy.  
“Still, thank you.” She moved her hand over his own and held it. At that moment Cronus felt just how deep he was into this, he’d just given all his diamonds to her and he regretted nothing. The first time he’d began to glimpse how much he pitied her was the night before their first date, lying in the pile (of crates they’d toppled over, but a pile nonetheless) and she decided to help him through life. The moment ended sooner than he’d liked, he didn’t want to have to start worrying about bothersome things again so soon. Like the shooter who took his gun for example.  
They pulled up to a big hive with only a few lights on inside. Roxy paid the driver and headed up the sidewalk.  
“Nice pad Void, bit bigger than I’d imagined.” Roxy unlocked the front door to reveal a  
“Yeah, it’s a bit too big for me, but it works! I’ll go tell Rose we have company, wait here.” It crossed Cronus’ mind that this could be a trap, he quickly and forcefully beat that idea away. The pink girl then dragged in a purple one, presumably Rose.  
“Hello Cronu-” Rose’s eyes darted around his face, settling on the two scars that reached over his forehead and down his face. Her face contorted into one of venom and hate, taking the seadweller aback before she lunged at him. Roxy quickly threw a shield between the two. Rose began yelling,  
“It’s you, you despicable seadweller, I should’ve just ripped your head off when I had the chance!” She continued yelling and Cronus saw through the tinted shield as she started hitting the barrier and crying. Recognition filled his face as he remembered his biggest mistake on his darkest day.  
Then he began reliving it, the images vivid and sensations real.  
Eight years ago his first matesprit, a violetblood boy that barely got in on the seadweller hemospectrum, was drowned. It should have been impossible but his killers, young adult trolls and humans, supposedly drunk, had held his gills so he couldn’t process the water. Cronus was looking for him and saw the group holding him under in a barrel of water. He saw the lifeless eyes of his matesprit and the group ran. He chased after them with ahab’s crosshairs, given to him due to sharing his sign and bloodcolor with Orphaner Dualscar. The gang ran into the school building where they were holding some kind of student concert. He followed them through the school building and out the back where he’d seen them go, but they’d vanished behind the dumpsters. He was shouting at them to come out and show their murderous faces, a door opened and he shot wildly in that direction. A young couple was standing there, but not for long, they fell over, unconscious or worse from the blast that had gone through their right side. He dropped the gun in horror and began to press down on the woman’s wound, she’d gotten the brunt of the blast. Nearly unnoticed the gang had ran out of the alley. He began crying for help while his violet tears went down his face, a small girl in a white shirt and black skirt came out holding her violin case. She saw her parents and screamed. She dropped the case and ran to their side. She’d asked what happened but all Cronus could say was sorry. The girl eventually got that it was him who’d done this to her parents and launched herself at him, small nails gouging out three stripes in his face, he threw her off himself, he picked up the gun and began running even with the tears and blood getting into his eyes. He kept running and running until he came to terms it was landwellers who’d made this happen and landwellers who would pay. He vowed to place seadwellers back on top, using Orphaner Dualscar as his alias, as he’d already gotten a good start on the first part and if he didn’t treat two of the scratches. they should scar. Cronus felt and saw things play out from the little girl’s, Rose’s, point of view and he cried harder. He started to feel as though he was being crushed by the guilt and everything he’d done.  
Cronus blinked open his eyes, he’d backed into a corner, he was curled up on the floor, he was in Void’s house. Across the room Rose was sobbing openly in Roxy’s arms. Roxy gave him a look of concern and confusion as she pet Rose’s hair calmingly. He looked away and felt his wrongs clench in his gut like a rock.  
\--------  
Roxy had no idea what just happened. She had crouched next to Rose first when she began sobbing, Cronus was still on the other side of the shield but very noticeably distressed, crying and rubbing his hands on his face and through his hair as though to wipe the sorrow away. Rose began to talk between sobs, with shaking breaths.  
“I was eight, I always hated the class, but I loved playing. Violin was my favorite thing. I’ve always thought, maybe if I didn’t play ever again, they’d come back. They saw a kid, scared and angry, with a gun, running down the halls. They thought they could help. But when I followed them outside.” Rose’s composition dissolved into blubbering. Roxy began stroking Rose’s hair like her own mother used to. Rose’s crying slowly stopped while Roxy glanced at Cronus with questioning. He looked away quickly with sorrow and guilt. Then it clicked: Rose, Foster home, Orphaner Dualscar. The purple eyed girl was now calmly breathing on Roxy’s shoulder.  
“Hey Rose,” she kept her voice soft “How about you go take a nice bath and afterwards we can watch any movie you want, or play any game. Hows that sound?” Rose made a soft noise of approval and Roxy helped her stand up and the teen slunk out of the foyer.  
Roxy then let the shield dissipate and went over to Cronus in the corner and gave him a big hug despite their size difference. He broke his stiff position and curled into the embrace. They sat there while Cronus cried for minutes, Roxy began rubbing his back and whispering about how it’s going to be okay. After a while Cronus pulled away and wiped his eyes on the back of his hand.  
“Well at least today was exciting” He spoke with a wavering voice, like he was about to start crying again at any given moment. They both gave a small laugh. After a bit of quiet Roxy decided to ask  
“You wanna talk about it?” Cronus let out a huff and began trying to smooth his hair back down.  
“Later, I’m not feeling stable right now, but I do want to talk. The thing is, she made me relive it. From my perspective and her’s too.” Roxy set her head on his shoulder, not sure what to say.  
“Do you need to get a bath?”  
“I think I will” He sat there until Roxy remembered he didn’t know where anything was.  
“Oh yeah! Here, let me show you” She jumped up and took him to the second bathroom, it was in the opposite direction to the one Rose went to.  
Roxy waited on the beanbags next to the TV, she’d told Cronus where to find her after he was done, and Rose should be getting out soon. Right on schedule a sleepy looking Rose, in the pajamas Roxy got her, shuffled into the room and plopped onto a beanbag chair next to Roxy.  
“Wanna watch Haerea Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone?” Roxy offered.  
“Yes!”  
Roxy started up the movie and turned out the lights. It started up and both of them watched with interest. Once Haerea began getting letters Roxy got up to make popcorn. While preparing it Cronus walked past before realising where she was.  
“Hey Cro, we’re watching Haerea Potter if you want to join.”  
“Really? I loved those books as a kid, never got a chance to see the movies, I heard they messed up the bloodcolor though”  
“Yeah, used a tealblood instead of olive, it only bugs me when his ancestor was then a goldblood”  
“No!”  
“Yeah, he’s supposed to have his fathers horns but his mother’s sign. But they do a good job with the rest of them though.” They continued making small talk while the popcorn popped. They came back in, Cronus sat on the couch, while Roxy sat herself back next to Rose who kept drifting off. Haerea had just ran into his first human friend Ron at the train station. Roxy offered some popcorn to Rose but she declined.  
\-------  
Rose was tired, but not tired enough to ignore the seadweller that followed in after Roxy. She’d felt his grief during the event, she’d never stopped and realised that her parents’ murderer was crying, was just as upset as her. Rose didn’t know what happened but when yelling at him she’d suddenly seen things play out from his point of view. All those years and her hate had been misdirected, he’d just been a scared kid like her. She wondered what she would’ve done in his position. The movie was just playing in the background of her thoughts, as her eyes started slipping shut the last thing she saw on the screen was the threeheaded dog chasing out Haerea and his friends.  
Her consciousness slipped back to the surface when she felt someone cold picking her up. Roxy’s voice was quiet.  
“Thanks for the help, I don’t think I could move her without waking her up.”  
“It’s really no problem” Cronus’ chest rumbled lightly as he spoke. “Least I could do.”  
“Do you think you wanna talk about what happened”  
“Not yet, what you need to know now is I never meant to shoot them and it’s haunted me since” Rose kept her heavy eyes closed as she vaguely listened to the two. She heard a door open and she was set down on the bed and tucked in. A warm hand brushed some of her short hair out of her face.  
“I’ll show you your room Cro, c’mon” Rose’s door closed and Rose then slipped away again.


	5. Mechanics and Miracles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see even more characters! Set in the same day as the last one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Comes in late with a chapter and an old meme* College decided to punch me in the face, very sorry about that. I am a terrible person. Sorry it's so short, I wanted to get it out and I had to finish up the day before I could move onto the next.

Equius walked down the pier, while the cold wasn’t cold enough to affect him yet, he had a jacket on due to Kanaya’s insistence. He kept his eyes looking around behind his busted shades for any sign of Capricious. The human had told him she’d last seen him down near the seadweller part of town and he had been running around there.  
The indigoblood’s eyes passed over the headline of a newspaper a seadweller was holding “CHAIN ROBBERIES STRIKE RACIST STORES” The article went on to explain that the stores in question were robbed in the middle of the night with no conceivable entrance point. He had to hold back the smile that wanted to come up, he and Kanaya were still in the clear.  
During his search a soft voice whispered in his mind to try going down an alley. Equius tried to make sure his face didn’t show his confusion and followed the voice. Seeing no one he turned to leave and came face to face with a rustblood with ram’s horns. He raised his fists, preparing to fight but the girl showed no interest in attacking.  
“Hello Shadow, I’m Ghost” She smiled largely, she had an airy voice. Equius adjusted his glasses and tried to hide the fact he was sweating.  
“And why would you be following me exactly”  
“Because I know you’ve been showing those racists who’s boss and I wanted to join you”  
“I’ll ask my partner but we’re not recruiting right now.”  
“Aw, bummer, too busy tracking down the clown?” Equius was taken aback  
“Y-yes, do you know where he is? I command you to tell me.” Ghost gave him a glare.  
“Um, please?” He quickly followed up.  
“I’ll tell you if you promise that afterwards I can tag along. Working alone is dull.” the hero sighed, knowing this was the best chance he had.  
“What do you have to offer to our team?”  
“Well....” Ghost disappeared and reappeared on a fire escape above him.  
“Invisibility, flying and a bit of telepathic “Pushing”. Just suggestions and the such, what do you think?” The blueblood wiped the sweat off his forehead as the girl floated down  
“How do I know you’re not “pushing” me now?” Ghost scrunched up her nose.  
“Because you’re different, am I right you actually heard my suggestion?”  
“Yes, is that a problem?”  
“I’d say! Most people don’t even consciously acknowledge it wasn’t their train of thought in the first place, they just go with it.”  
“It may be due to my shadow powers, the Clown’s fear doesn’t work on me.  
Ghost’s eyes grew wide as she broke into a large slightly terrifying smile.  
“Great! I’ll meet you here tomorrow okay? About four, will you bring your friend?”  
Equius froze as he thought, he knew that Kanaya would insist, but he couldn’t lose her too.  
“No”  
\--------

The clown sat and he waited, that was what he had to do now for things to go as he wanted, and while he waited he listened.  
‘THE SHADOW WILL COME AND WE SHALL BEST HIM AGAIN’ a harsh voice resonated in Capricious’ mind.  
‘but the others can’t improve without a little push’ despite the softer nature this voice was every bit as loud as the harsh one.  
‘THE HEIR HAS BEEN ADVANCED AS FAR AS HE CAN, NOW HIS HEART MUST BE RESTORED’  
‘you need to set the bard of hope in motion, he walks with the rouge’  
Gamzee got up, he looked across the rooftops,  
“And how do I start them rolling?”  
‘FIND THEM KILL THEM’ the harsher voice answered him.  
‘no, just watch, we will guide you once you find them’ the soft one corrected the other.  
“Got it.”  
The purpleblood jumped over the ledge on the ceiling and climbed down the fire escape. He pulled up the hood of his jacket and scanned the faces in the crowd, looking for one that sparked a memory. Finally catching a pink and purple pair he recognised he moved in aggressively.  
‘the bag’  
Gamzee made a break for it, snatching the girl’s bag and knocking her down. His fellow bard began catching up to him.  
‘TURN RIGHT NOW’ Gamzee made his way into the alley and was picked up and slammed against the wall the second he turned back around. The bag fell from his grasp and was leaning against the wall. Normally Capricious would have to fake being scared, but the seadweller was a bit more intimidating than he remembered, and a lot more angry.  
“What do you think you’re doing, I’ve seen you around here before and you know that thieves aren't taken to kindly around here. If I-” the seadweller’s threat was cut off by the human girl berating him. Gamzee had a perfect reach to the hope player’s throat.  
‘GO FOR THE JUGULAR END IT NOW’  
‘no, the arm’  
Capricious slid his knife out of his sleeve and plunged it into the seadweller’s arm.  
The moment he was free Gamzee made a run for it before stopping in front of the void player. She was important to the plans.  
“Thanks miss, the mirthful messiahs will remember your help.” He chuckled and left her standing there.  
“Thanks for all the help to come too.” He couldn't help but mutter after he was a safe distance away.  
\--------  
‘The technopath's shop is just ahead’ The Bottler turned his head forward to see an artfully graffitied workshop with the sagittarius symbol cropping up multiple times.  
“Thanks, I noticed” Dirk Strider turned down his AI’s volume to his upset.  
‘Wow, point out one obvious fact and you suddenly get turned....’  
“What’s that, can’t hear you” He opened the door and ensured the security of the black satchel he held. Under a car in the middle of the shop he could see a pair of legs.  
“Hey, I have a job for you” the pair of legs jerked up and then Dirk realized they were the wrong way around, why was he on his stomac-  
“Oh bother. Rufioh, put your shirt back on”  
Oh.  
Struggles could be heard from under the car and Dirk turned his head away as he saw the couple emerge from under the car.  
"Now that we are decent, what seems to be the problem?" The Prince turned to look at the blueblood and his brownblood companion. The blueblood, Horuss, had his workmask turned around backwards while the brownblood, Rufioh, was fitting a pair of sparkling brown wings through a vest.  
"Oh! It's the Bottler, I'm sorry Rufioh but this is important" The winged troll shrugged, gave a kiss on Horuss's cheek and headed into one of the back rooms.  
"Hey Horuss, I've heard good things about your abilities,"  
"Well that must have been why you came to see me then!"  
"Yes, it has a telepathic interface I'm having troubles with, the programming's fine, it's just the tech I need help with."  
"Let me see" Dirk unzipped a silver partially constructed tiara from his bag and handed it gently to Horuss. Horuss, instead of holding the tiara, made it float in front of him as he inspected the wiring.  
"I don't want to break it, it seems very nice. May I ask who the lucky lady is?"  
"A friend who got into some trouble with a telepath. This should counteract the effects. Hopefully."  
"You're missing a few pieces, but I can provide them, it should be done by this time tomorrow."  
"Thanks a bunch, rethink my offer?"  
Horuss sighed and Dirk noticed his eyes dart to the back room,  
"I've got a good thing going here, and I wouldn't want to loose it. I'll talk with Rufioh about joining later, but we probably won't"  
"I understand, I'd give anything to be able to just relax again, but that's not going to happen with villains parading the streets, because while they're out there, the people I love are in danger. Zahhak, please think about it, you and Rufioh could help make a difference in this dark world. Something's coming, and I have a feeling it's not too friendly, I don't think it'll bypass you because you're a mechanic in a committed relationship."  
The room had become so quiet that when Dirk was leaving he could hear his AI  
'Well no pressure'


End file.
